


Fermata

by Alternateshua



Category: Miraclass - Fandom, Phantom Singer 2
Genre: I don't know how will their relatonship goes, M/M, More tags as the chapter goes on, Multi, Slice of Life, This is going to be a healing story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-28
Packaged: 2020-05-14 16:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19277500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alternateshua/pseuds/Alternateshua
Summary: "Fermata: A Pause of Unspecified Length or Rest"Park Kanghyun, a musical superstar, decided to take an indefinite rest from the musical scene and stayed on a small town that is faraway from the city. During his stay, he met lots of people with every different background story each and another, from the coffee bar next door owner until an international superstar that took a break on the town. This is a story of healing and finding a meaning of one's existence.





	1. Act 1-1: New Boy in Town

Kanghyun hops out from the bus as soon as he’s arrived at terminal, then looking for the van that will took him to his homestay. It was a white van that could fill at the most 10 people with 20 kg luggage each. After found his van, he puts the luggage on the van baggage and hops in, there are only 4 passengers including him inside the van, one old man around his dad’s age, and one woman with her daughter, most likely still in elementary school since he knew that there’s a child that resembles her next to his apartment room.

Kanghyun picked the seat next to the window, plugged his earphone on and played a random song on the shuffle. The trip to his homestay is around 45 minutes with this van, Kanghyun may like to sleep but he couldn’t sleep since he already asleep during the bus trip, so he just enjoying the scenery from the window. The trip is quiet since everyone fell asleep during the trip, only the sound of car that can be heard slightly even when he’s wearing earphone.

After arriving at his homestay, Kanghyun checked-in with the home owner’s son, then unload his stuffs on one bedroom on the first floor. After unloading his stuffs, he looks around the home first, next to the bedroom, there’s a shower, then moving a little bit further, there’s a kitchen with some food that you can cook. The owner’s son also said that they usually load the fridge too when he could, he looked at the food storage, there’s some cornflakes, tea, instant noodles, and other food. After looking at the fridge and food, he looked at the second floor, at the second floor, there’s empty space, a balcony, and two other rooms that is unused since he’s coming here alone. The balcony is also furnished with two chairs and a small round table and facing another building. After looking around, he finally took a rest on his room before looking around the town at the afternoon.

Time passed by and its 3 PM as Kanghyun woke from his nap. He wore his pink hoodie, and then went outside to look around the town. In front of his homestay, there’s another home owned by a middle-aged woman that is watering her plants at that moment. Kanghyun greeted her first, then she’s greeted him back with a warm smile.

“Are you living on the homestay across?” asked the woman

“Yes ma’am,” he said

“What a nice man, I rarely got the greetings from people who stayed there, but from what I know, most of them come from the big city and spending their summer here,” she said and sighs in between.

“I would love to know people around since I’m going to stay here for pretty long time,”

“How long?”

“I don’t know, but I paid the rent monthly, so I guess, more than 6 months?” Kanghyun wonders

“Oh, you take a pretty long break! You’ll get healed really well here,” said the woman enthusiastically

“I hope so, anyway ma’am, I’m going first, I will see you later!” said Kanghyun, then left the woman to look around.

Around the town, he could recognize that there’s the market that is pretty crowded and selling almost anything, from fruits to street food that looked so tempting and delicious. He bought a fishcake and corndog from the market for some tasting, it was a good food although the fishcake was a little too salty for him. After looking around the market, he moved to another alley that is full of housing area and also an enormous park that is really green and clean. He could see that there’s lot of children and some mothers there, there are some children that playing the seesaw, some of them are playing slides and some of them are playing with a ball. Kanghyun went to the park for awhile, just to look around, and then went back to the street to continue his strolling.

Everything feels strange for him, but it’s a good strange feeling that he could fell in love with this city immediately. He continues to stroll, then stopped by the coffee bar next to the homestay, the homestay owner’s son also told him to pay a visit to this coffee bar as soon as he finished with exploring the nearby area of the town. This coffee bar opens from 1 PM and closed at 2 AM. A good place to get your late night snacks and some good late-night music.

“The owner itself can play piano and guitar, he also has a nice voice, you’ll like it,”

It’s all about pretty dim light, wooden furniture and vintage styled coffee bar. The smell of coffee brew can be smelled upon you entering the bar, accompanied by the mixture of soft jazz and acoustic ballad music that is hand-picked by the owner itself. Kanghyun wondered who is the owner of the bar, the ambience of the place is really classic and beautiful in it’s own way. After picking the seat, Kanghyun went to the barista table, then ordered a glass of iced Americano.

“I just saw you, are you new here?” asked the barista

“Yes, I just come,” said Kanghyun

The barista murmured, then went to the coffee machine to process Kanghyun’s order. So does Kanghyun that went back to his seat. A puppy is just stood beside his seat, Kanghyun greeted the puppy, the sit the dog on his lap and played with the dog a little. While he was playing with the dog, a tall man with ash brown hair appears, he was wearing a denim jacket and a slim-fit black denim at that time.

“Elvis, don’t sit on customer’s lap,” he said, then went to Kanghyun’s seat to pick the dog from Kanghyun’s lap.

“Ah sorry, but I was the one who pick the dog to my sit on my lap,” said Kanghyun. The tall man then smiled, saying that he thought that his dog was annoyed the customer so he called the dog and after he knew that it was Kanghyun that is picking the dog up he was relieved that it doesn’t annoy him.

“Anyway, I heard you are staying next, right?” the tall man opened up the talk.

“Yes I am,” said Kanghyun

“Ah, I think I need to introduce myself since we will meet often, I’m Taein and I became the owner of this coffee bar since like … two years ago?” the tall man introduced himself, then offer the handshake to Kanghyun, Kanghyun also introduced himself to Taein. Taein also introduced two baristas that worked on the coffee bar, the first one is Jinho, the one that picks Kanghyun’s order and the other one is Jiwon, the one that is writing on his tablet when Jinho is picking up Kanghyun’s order.

“One ice Americano!” Jiwon’s voice could be heard, Kanghyun got up to  pick his order first. Then came back with his iced Americano.

“Anyway, there will be live music today, if you mind to join our live music party, you are really welcomed,” said Taein

“Sure, I would love to join,” said Kanghyun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! This is actually a writing i wish i want to keep it just for fun, but i guess i want to share it with one of my friend who asked me to post this on AO3, anyway, if you guys don't mind, let's be friend on twitter! it's @pastelhb (Aside from phantom singer, i'm also a fan of vixx and loona and like lots of group especially girlgroups!)


	2. Act I-II: Of the Quiet Night

Day changed quickly to night as the sun sets and the sky goes darker. Taein sets the live music all by himself before more customers came. As soon as the set-up finished, the guests came one by one, most of the customers are around 20s to early 30s that is either living here or just having a vacation here. Both Jiwon and Jinho are busy preparing order for customers. While Taein are preparing himself to open the live session.

“Good night everyone, welcome to today’s live session, as usual, we accept any song request with every story behind it, you can send it to our barista every Monday to Wednesday and the picked songs will be played started from Thursday live sessions,” Taein opens tonight live session with his delightful bass voice, his white shirt are buttoned down by 2 buttons and a tie that is not tied tightly is his attire at that night. It’s also completed with black pants and a work style shoes with similar color with his pants.

“For tonight’s stage, I’m not going to sing alone, my friend, Philip will sing with me for today,” said Taein as a man with thin beard and thick body walked to the stage. He wore a short-sleeved plaid shirt and a jeans. The man took seat beside Taein, then made sure that he sat comfortably. Before starting the first song, Taein and the guy building the chemistry by doing several talk, including introducing the guy.

“Hello for those who are just new here, I am Philip, the guy who worked at garden at day and singing at night, it’s good to greet everyone through songs every time possible,” The guy with beard introduced himself, then Taein asked several questions before proceeding to the first song. The first song the duet sang was Dream Street by Winterplay.

_Achim e mundeug nuneul tteoboni_  
_nasseolge boineun modeunge nae juwie gadeugcha_  
_ireona dasi salpyeoboassdeoni oraedwien nae jageun bang_  
_eoje bam kkume naneun boassji_  
_hayahge ppeodeo naega issneun gil yeop e geu georireul_  
_eonjena gaseum-eulo geulideon gos-eul  
_ _nan kkum eul tago chajanaengeoya_

The sound of acoustic guitar that is played by Taein and the duet of the friends are filled the coffee bar, make the night warmer and cozier than any other night that have been passed by Kanghyun before he came here.

“How’s our first song? Was it good?” asked Taein toward the audiences after the song finished.

“It’s good,” said some of the audiences

Taein then building the ambience with audiences by telling several stories, and sharing some trivias. Most of female audiences are looked so enthusiast but there’s also some male audiences that is listening while sipping on their warm cup of coffee. Taein and Philip then proceeding to next songs to sing, including the requests that come with letters and stories behind it.

Song by Song has passed. Suddenly, Taein asked another man to come up to the stage. The man is really neat with his light blue shirt and jeans, also with a pair of with sneakers. Seems like he’s a college student or a freshly graduated one. Taein asked him to introduce himself before, so the guy introduced himself as 24 years old fresh graduate that is already employed at a bank branch on his hometown. He has someone he loved, 2 years older than him and also his senior at work, and today, he’s going to confess his love to her by singing her favorite song.

“Noona, I don’t know which song on your playlist I should sing, just like how I don’t know how to describe my own feelings back then, but now I know and I’ll sing it for you,” he mentioned.

The man whispered to Taein, “you know quando quando right?”. Taein nods, then whispered again, “You want me to play any instrument?”. The man nods, then going back to the seat. Taein went back first, then brought the acoustic guitar with him. Before the singing session starts, Taein and the man doing the tuning to match the voice and the guitar, soon, as everything set. Taein started playing the song intro, it’s a bossa-nova styled arrangement that pretty match with the man’s voice and also, matching the ambience of the bar.

_Tell me when will you be mine_  
_Tell me quando quando quando_  
_We can share a love divine_  
_Please don't make me wait again_  
  
_When will you say yes to me?_  
_When will you say yes to me?_  
_Tell me quando quando quando_  
_Tell me quando quando quando_  
_You mean happiness to me_  
_You mean happiness to me_  
_Oh, my love, please tell me when_

The ambience went up as the song continues. Even people who just came didn’t think to order the drinks or snacks first and just sit on available seat to enjoy the live first.

_Every moments a day_  
_Every moments a day_  
_Every day seems a lifetime_  
_Every day seems like a lifetime_  
_Let me show you the way_  
_Let me show you the way_  
_To a joy beyond compare_  
  
_I can't wait a moment more_  
_Tell me quando quando quando_  
_Tell me quando quando quando_  
_Just say it's me that you adore_  
_And then, darling, tell me when_

“Noona, I loved you since my intern days, I worked hard so I could come back to see you for more times, will you accept my feelings?” he finally confessed his feelings at the end of the song. The whole bar are furious and didn’t expect that but still chanting “say yes” to the woman that is get confessed. One woman stood up, it was the one that the man confessed to. Jiwon that is jobless helped by handing her a wireless microphone that put beside the barista table.

“Changho, I never thought it’s happened today, I thought this is just our normal day to go to a café wherever we are having an MT, but yes, I like you too, as much as only myself knows it,” she said.

“So miss, are you saying yes or no?” asked Taein

“Yes,” she answered boldly.

The crowd cheered as the woman said yes. As for the celebration, Taein asked the woman to go up to the stage to take a commemoration photo together. After the commemoration photo sessions, both man and woman that became lovers went off the stage. Then, Taein continued the stage with another songs, some of the songs are his solo stage and there’s also duet either with Philip or Jiwon.

“And finally, we are on our last song, it’s a song request by blueberry sherbet,” Taein mentioned

Kanghyun who is still sitting on the same corner from the afternoon he came, listening to every songs of the live stage carefully. On the same corner with him, there’s a woman who’s also listening, she brought a notebook with her, sometimes, she scribbles on it while listening to the live stage too. Her long hair is tied into bun and she wears a round silver glasses. As Taein said the word blueberry sherbet, her eyes are wide awake.

“So, it must be her,” said Kanghyun as he saw the startled woman beside him

Taein the read the letter after mentioning the nickname, “Hello, I’m a 25 years old woman who’s currently worked at a law firm, the song I requested is actually a song that reminds me of someone who’s enroll at internship together with me. Back then, I thought that my life as law student will be as dull as a desk full of dust, but during my internship days, I met this guy and my life totally changed. Please sing Frank Sinatra’s ‘Quiet Night of Quiet Stars’, thank you very much,”

“Actually I was shocked with the song pick, because, it’s rare for woman to request this kind of song, but thank you for requesting, I made some re-arrangement for it so I hope everyone likes it too,” said Taein, then, he started with key tuning first. After they key was tuned, he started to play the intro,

_Quiet nights of quiet stars_  
_Quiet chords from my guitar_  
_Floating on the silence that surrounds us_

“Do you like this kind of song?” asked Kanghyun

“The guy I mentioned made me like this song,” she said while sipping on her vanilla latte

“I see,” said Kanghyun, then continued to listen the stage.

As the song ends, it marks the end of today’s live stage, one by one, everyone’s coming back to their resting place. So does Kanghyun, he stood up and then went back to his homestay next door. Taein who is out too at that time saw that, and then asked whether he could stay longer at the bar or not, Kanghyun refused by saying that it’ll bothers him, and told Taein to rest too.

“Fine, maybe I should ask you later,” said Taein

“Rest well, if you don’t mind, come back again tomorrow,” he continued.

**

Kanghyun laid on his bed, the effect of the strong Americano still felt through his body. No matter how hard he tried to close his eyes, he still couldn’t close his eyes. He regretted on how he should just drink vanilla latte instead of iced Americano back then. So, since he couldn’t sleep, he went to the kitchen and reach for a carton of milk on the fridge. After pouring the milk to the glass, he drank it in silence.

The clocks point at 3 AM, Kanghyun still not asleep yet no matter how hard he tries. So, he moves upstair to the balcony to enjoy the view, probably until the sun rises. As he sat on the chair, he surrounded by the quiet starry night, at some times, the breeze come passing by. On his mind, lingers the Frank Sinatra song that close that night’s live session.

_This is where I want to be_  
_Here with you so close to me_  
_Until the final flicker of life's ember_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter finally out! This took a pretty long time to pick a playlist that i want to put on this chapter (also with the side stories of it) and after several change of the songs, it's finally here! Should i put the songs i used on the note too?


	3. Act 1-3: He's Looking For A Job

One day is finally passed by; the sun has finally rising so high as Kanghyun is walking from the market to have some breakfast. He also brought some rice roll for lunch. He’s still not figuring on what will he do for the rest of his break here. Kanghyun wondered if he should find a part-time job or doing a volunteer somewhere.

“Maybe I can ask the coffee bar guy this afternoon,” said Kanghyun

The Coffee bar is still quiet, only 2 people are inside, even the barista there are only Jinho that is just reading comic. Kanghyun ordered only lemon tea since the side-effect of the strong Americano he ordered last night is probably still lingering with him. Kanghyun picked the same spot like yesterday since no one there. It’s still the same playlist from yesterday when he first came, a magic handcraft of playlist by Taein consist of slow acoustic and jazz songs, the language is either English, Korean, even French. But, since there’s no one he could talk to, he moved to the tall chairs on the barista table to talk with barista.

“I thought the place will be packed on afternoon,” said Kanghyun.

“Well, since our concept is bar, it’s usually more packed at night,” said Jinho as he keeps the page he read with his fingers so he didn’t lose them.

Several talks later, someone entered the coffee bar. It was the same guy that sings with Taein last night, he could tell it from his beard and body shape. Also, he wore the same plaid coat he wore last night.

“Oh Philip, you may need your stamina coffee, right?” asked Jinho, then moved to the brewing station to prepare the man’s coffee.

“Just peach tea for today,” the man said

“Oh really? Okay,” said Jinho

The man looked at Kanghyun from head to toe, he examined Kanghyun really well and humming a little. Something must be coming up to his mind upon seeing Kanghyun.

“Taein talked about someone last night, and I thought that the person must be you,” he said

“Pardon?” asked Kanghyun

The man laughed, thinking that Kanghyun is scared of him because of his appearance that is looking strong and scary. He told Kanghyun not to worry about it and saying that he’s not a monster that is going to bite him if he made a mistake. Then, the man sat beside Kanghyun and introduced himself to Kanghyun.

“I’m Philip, Taein’s friend. I’m working at a grape garden that my family owns,” he introduced himself. Kanghyun nod his head, then proceeding to asking some questions. In contrast with his looks, Philip is actually a kind and warm-hearted person.

“Philip, can you recommend me a job to done during my stay?” asked Kanghyun

“How long are you going to stay?” asked Philip

“I don’t know, maybe … Until next year?” asked Kanghyun

“Wow, that’s a pretty long stay,” said Philip, then he sips his peach tea. Philip then scrolled his phone to give Kanghyun some job ideas.

“Well … You must be calculating your stay from long long time ago that you are this quick-witted,” said Philip

“Because I’m not coming for a mere holiday like most city people that come here,” said Kanghyun

Philip then found a job that he thought would suit Kanghyun. It’s a job on his friend’s cat shelter. Philip then showed the flyer to Kanghyun.

“This is a volunteer job actually, are you okay with that?” asked Philip as Kanghyun read the flyer thoroughly. After he finished reading the flyer, Kanghyun nod his head, a sign of agreement with the job.

“Anyway, can I have your contact? I can give you some recommendations if I found one,” asked Philip

“Oh, sure,” said Kanghyun, then, Philip handed his phone to Kanghyun so Kanghyun can put his contact himself. After Kanghyun put his contact, he returned Philip’s phone.

“Anyway, where’s Taein? it’s strange that he’s not around at this time,” said Philip. The clock showed 5PM, it’s the time that Taein usually just showed up now, along with his puppy Elvis since he has no one to take care of elvis while he’s away for work.

“It seems he’s coming late, he said there’s something to done first,” said Jinho as he checked his phone.

“I see,” said Philip.

After several minutes, Taein finally came without elvis on his arm. Philip asked where is Elvis as he didn’t come with him. Taein said that his cousin came, so his cousin will take care of elvis while he’s on work.

“For how long?” asked Jinho

“She’s going to stay here for two weeks, but he’s also busy with his final papers, so she’ll not come here as often as previous summers,” said Taein, then going to staff room to hang his jacket.

“Anyway, I’m not joining tonight’s live session, I have to sleep earlier,” said Kanghyun

“What’s going on?” asked Taein

“Ahh … He’s going to visit Donghyun’s place tomorrow,” said Philip, then giving some explanation about Kanghyun that is want to get a job to done during his stay here. Taein murmurs, it’s a good idea because Taein knows that Kanghyun will get bored if he’s going to stay here without doing any job, even when it’s a volunteer job.

**

The next morning, Kanghyun woke up earlier than usual. Then clean himself and changing clothes. The clock is ticking at 6.40 AM as he finished preparing himself and ready to go out to look for something for breakfast first before heading to the shelter. As Kanghyun remembers, if he walked for 8 minutes, he could found a breakfast bistro that is located next to a nail salon. So he trusts his memories in order to find the building.

And his instinct was right, there’s a tosca-colored building vintage brunch place that he remembered. There’s an old couple eating their brunch in front of the building. Kanghyun then entered the building and ordered his food. After ordering his food, he sat on the long table one that is usually for people who came alone. He looked at the happy old couple that talked to each other.

_“How good to have someone to grow old together,”_ Kanghyun murmured.

Kanghyun was immersed in observing the old couple and didn’t realize that someone’s poking his back until that person softly calling his name so Kanghyun looked back at that person. It was Taein and he’s with someone at that time.

“I thought you will not know this place sooner,” said Taein

“This place is actually some of my first discoveries,” said Kanghyun

“I see, anyway, my cousin is here so I can’t talk longer, are you coming to bar today?” asked Taein

“Most likely,” said Kanghyun

Taein murmurs first, “Oh okay, I will see you there!” he said, then left Kanghyun to accompanying his cousin.

After he finished his breakfast, he continued walking to the shelter. The clock on his phone shows 7.38, a few more minutes before the shelter opens. The shelter is actually not that far from the brunch restaurant so he’s not going to be late, and he was right, as he came, the shelter was just opened. There are some staffs who just took care of the cats there. Kanghyun straightforwardly head to the receptionist table. But he’s not on a good luck when the receptionist table is actually still empty, so he need to wait for several minutes until a woman with long chestnut hair appeared, he thought that she’s one of the staff so he asked her.

“Excuse me, where is the receptionist?” asked Kanghyun

“What do you need?” asked the woman

“I want to sign-up as volunteer,” said Kanghyun

The woman stopped for a while and examining Kanghyun from head to toe as she knew something after scanning him. The woman turned back to her place, Kanghyun thought that she didn’t welcome him as a guest, but the guessing is 100 percent wrong. The woman is now coming with a tall man, he’s probably around Taein’s height and he’s having a muscular posture too.

“Are you the one that Philip told about this shelter?” the man asked.

“Y-yes,” said Kanghyun

“Calm down, I’m not going to do anything on you,” he said

The man then asked Kanghyun to come with him to his office, it was actually also a vet practice room since there’s a lot of medic tools and medicines inside the room. The man is still looking for something, so Kanghyun can still looking around the room with his eyes are rolling around. He’s never saw such a vet room even though he’s living in the city.

“Sorry for making you wait a little, you can fill the form of volunteer here,” said the man, then giving Kanghyun the form to fill. As Kanghyun filled in the form, they also talked about simple things, some of them also related to Kanghyun’s relationship with animals so the man could put trust on him as volunteer on animal shelter. After Kanghyun finished with the form, he returned it to the man.

“This Thursday, come back here again at 7.30,” said the man

“Sure,” said Kanghyun. Then getting out from the office and also returning to his homestay.

**

The afternoon on coffee bar is always as quiet as it is, but surprisingly, Kanghyun found that Taein already there, along with Philip. Kanghyun guessed that they are about to practice for the live stage tonight. Taein give a hand sign to Kanghyun to join them at that spot as they took break from practice for a while.

“How’s the job application?” asked Philip

“I thought the boss was scary,” said Kanghyun jokingly

“Donghyun may have that tall and muscular body, but he’s actually a soft man at heart, especially toward animals,” said Taein

“Anyway, what did he said to you after filling the form?” asked Philip

“He asked me to come back at Thursday, I don’t know for what,” said Kanghyun

“Ha, he’s unexpected,” said Philip

“Think on a bright side, it’s maybe your first day of trial as volunteer,” said Taein

Kanghyun smiled thinly, then said, “I hope so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After a long time!! I have an MT from Monday to Tuesday so i can only writing brain dumps on my notebook. The MT is super fun and i got lots of writing inspiration from the events!


End file.
